A multibillion-dollar market is on the way for liquid biopsy, which allows the measurement of markers present in biological fluids, a repeatable method of disease diagnosis that could replace some invasive biopsies and allow clinicians access to tissues that have been inaccessible with current methods. Within this dynamic field, ANGLE PLC is coming closer to clinical application market readiness with its circulating tumor cell harvesting technology, as CEO Andrew Newland explains.

The introduction of Apple’s ResearchKit is our top story of the year. Mobile apps and the increasing ability to take measurements of vital signs, gather information on habits and collect other phenotypic measures is rapidly changing thinking about clinical trials design.

At $1.8 billion, Q2 device financing nearly doubled the Q1 total, mainly from an increase in IPOs and early VC rounds, and acquisitions were slightly higher at $4.7 billion. Diagnostics funding also increased to $784 million from Q1's $597 million, and Danaher's monster $13.8 billion buy of life sciences company Pall headlined the second quarter's $15.6 billion total in diagnostics M&A activity.

The global molecular diagnostics market will grow by $2.4 billion over the next five years according to a global market report from Medtech Insight. Major factors contributing to the healthy growth of this market include advances in technology, as well as the growing understanding of the human genome, pharmacogenomics and the relationship between genes and disease/infection.